The Birth Of The Cottage
Industry and Changes in Work
The growth of the Cottage Industry and the decline of the Urban
Guilds laid the foundations of a consumer economy.
By Kenneth, Chace, Blaire and Lindsay
Life Before the Cottage Industry-Urban
Guilds
• urban guilds dominated the economy
o collected taxes from their members
o imposed standards and orders on trade
o represented the interests of commerce to the government
• received privileges from the crown
• very restrictive-violators of these monopolies could be prosecuted
Urban Guilds-Continued
• guild masters adopted new
technologies
• found creative ways to get
around impractical rules
• grew more accessible to
woman.
• by 1777 all guilds were open to
women
• guilds were abolished in 1791
Life Before the Cottage Industry-Peasants
• Peasant communities...
o made clothing
o processed food
o constructed housing
• peasants did not produce
manufacturing to sell on the market
• manufactured goods for their own
use
Life Before the Cottage Industry
Raw Materials
Raw Materials
Peasants
Made it into
usable products
Artists Made it
into usable, yet
luxurious
products
Peasant Use
Wealthy
upper class
buys
The Rise of the Cottage Industry/Putting
Out System
Raw Materials
Merchants
Cottage Workers
Finished Products
• rise of population = unemployment in rural areas, = rural
workers to look for other sources of work
• cause of the cottage industry
• organized through the putting out system
• Consisted of manufacturing with hand tools in peasant
cottages
The Putting out sytem 2.0
• Work was often
broken down into
stages, making
the job more
Raw Materials
productive, and
allowing for
Merchants
more jobs for the
worker
Cottage Workers
Spinsters
Bleachers
Dyers
Finished Products
Weavers
How does all of this affect the Guilds?
•
•
•
•
•
Population growth = low unemployment rate in the fields
Rural Workers went to city for work
Competition for Guild System
Rural workers cost less, merchants preferred to hire them
Rural poverty and the need to employ landless peasants hurt
the urban guilds ability to maintain their monopolies
The Textile Industry
•
•
•
•
•
Manufacturing of textiles (cloth)
Handlooming= family job
Loom= man's job
women/children worked on supporting tasks
Conflicts between merchant and worker
Cottage Manufacturing in Europe
The Industrious revolution, not to be
confused with the industrial revolution
• Social and economic
changes in Europe
• People worked harder
• Goods available at
lower prices
• Consumer economy
• Individual family
members worked for
money, bought what
they needed
Women's roles in the Industrious
Revolution
•
•
•
•
Started to enter the work force
Simple and boring jobs for low wages
Making money = more power
Women got control of surplus
o Bought luxury items which helped the textile industry
The Rise of the Consumer Economy
• Driven by individual expenditures
• jobs
spending
demand
more jobs
• spent on household necessities.
o surplus funds were available for luxury goods
• all of the family worked for wages
o Later, goes back to old model (head of the house provides)
Connections to today
• During the 19th and 20th century
o work was done in factories
o recently a more modern cottage industry
• This is how our economy works now:
o We buy not produce our products
o jobs of making the bread are divided among many people.
• Another industrious revolution is now starting
Bibliography
The Rise of the Cottage Cheese Industry
A History of Modern Society
http://issworldhistory.forumotion.net/t1206-the-putting-out-system
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_economy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrious_Revolution#Patterns_of_Con
sumption
http://www.investorwords.com/3112/monopoly.html